The Fair Labor Standards Act prohibits employers from employing any child under 18 years of age in the following occupations because they have been deemed to be particularly hazardous for them or detrimental to their health of well-being, except in the situations describe below:

Exceptions

Youth who are 16 and 17 years old may work in the occupations described above in the following situations:

in offices or in repair or maintenance shops

in the construction, operation, repair, or maintenance of living and administrative quarters, including logging camps and fire fighting base camps

in the repair or maintenance of roads, railroads, or flumes and work in the construction and maintenance of telephone lines, but only if the minors are not engaged in the operation of power-driven machinery, the handling or use of explosives, the felling or bucking of lumber, the collecting or transporting of logs, or work on trestles

performs the following forest fire prevention, so long as they are not performed in conjunction with or in support of efforts to extinguish forest fires:

construction, maintenance, and patrolling fire lines;

piling and burning slash;

maintaining fire fighting equipment; and

acting as a fire lookout or fire patrolman

in forest marketing and forest economics when performed away from the forest

in feeding or caring for animals

in peeling fence posts, pulpwood, chemical wood, excelsior wood, cordwood, or similar products, when not done in conjunction with and at the same time and place as other logging occupation that are not permitted

the following occupations in permanent sawmills, lath mills, shingle mills, and cooperage stock mills, but not portable sawmills, where work does not require the youth to enter the sawmill building (except where specifically permitted for youth eligible for the the exception for traditional workworking in religious sects):

straightening, marking, or tallying lumber on the dry chain or the dry drop sorter

pulling lumber from the dry chain, except minors under 16 years of age may not pull lumber from the dry chain

cleaning up the lumber yard

piling, handling, or shipping cooperage stock in yards or storage sheds other than operating or assisting in the operation of power-driven equipment (applies on to 16 and 17 year olds, not youth under 16)

clerical work in yards or shipping sheds, such as work done by ordermen, tally-men, or shipping clerks

cleaning up outside shake and shingle mills, unless the mill is in operation

splitting shakes manually from pre-cut and split blocks with a froe and mallet, except in side the mill building or cover

packing shakes into bundles when done in conjunction with splitting shakes manually. except inside the mill building or cover

manually loading bundles of shakes into trucks or railroad cars, so long as the employer has on file a statement from a licensed doctor of medicine or osteopathy certifying that the minor is capable of performing the work (applies on to 16 and 17 year olds, not youth under 16)

Inside or outside the place of business

Inside or outside a place of business means the actual physical location of the entity employing the minor, including the buildings and surrounding land necessary to business operations. 29 CFR 570.54(b)

Portable sawmill

A portable sawmill means a sawmilling operation where no office or repair or maintenance shop it regularly maintained. Additionally, any lumberyard associated with the operations is used only for the temporarily storing green lumber. 29 CFR 570.54(b)

Remanufacturing department

A remanufacturing department is a department where previously cut lumber is remanufactured into boxes, lawn furniture, and other products. The work is similar to work performed in planin mills. It does not include operations in sawmills where rough lumber is cut to dimensions. 29 CFR 570.54(b)

Age certification

Employers who employ minors are not in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s child labor laws if they keep on file unexpired certificates of age for each minor employed which shows the minor is the appropriate age for the work being performed, even if the child turns out not to be the appropriate age. 29 US Code 203(l)(2); 29 CFR 570.5(a); 29 CFR 570.38; 29 CFR 570.121 For more information, visit our page on Age Certificates.